I knit this almost entirely as written. I did do different button holes. I was going to be fancy and do the “tulips” buttonhole as described by TECHknitter. But I did it kind of sloppy and it was looking pretty crummy. So instead I went with Joan Schroeder’s garter stitch buttonhole which is a (K2tog, yo, yo, ssk) over four stitches. A one row buttonhole. It was very tidy and it fit the existing buttons that I had well. The buttons were Organic Elements coconut buttons from JoAnn’s. I bought them years ago and was happy to use something I already had.

I am a little disappointed in the amount of gaping that I am getting between buttons. Maybe I could have made a larger size, but maybe more buttons would do the trick. Or just always wear it only buttoned by the top button like in the book… The numbers for the buttonholes didn’t work out for me (on the M size) but I think the designer is not counting the stitch that remains after binding off in the counts. For example if it said, K3, BO 4, K9, BO 4… then on the BO you slip the stitch over the next stitch 4 times and then knit 9. You will have 10 knit stitches between buttonholes (not 9!). (I don’t remember the actual counts). I guess this is just a different style of writing them out, but since I was trying to do a different buttonhole threw me for a loop.

I enjoyed working with the yarn. It was very comfy feeling and really has the feel of wool for a 50/50 wool/acrylic blend. On a couple skeins there was a thick slub where they had joined ends together. I should have cut it out and joined again but instead I tried to just knit over the slub. So now I have a few spots where I had to pull a little gob of yarn to the inside of the sweater so it wasn’t visible from the outside. I would still definitely use the yarn again. I ordered it online, so the color isn’t quite as I imagined it, but it is still nice. And I only used 4 skeins. Of course I had bought 6… I wish I had matched up my available yardage better to the project!